AIRPORTS: Former Norton AFB could capitalize on ONT woes

San Bernardino International's passenger terminal remains empty, but jetport and Customs building use may grow. --(FILE PHOTO)

San Bernardino International Airport — the former Norton Air Force Base — may not offer commercial air service to U.S. destinations U.S. anytime soon.

But it can capitalize on Ontario International Airport’s woes by providing some of the services missing at the Inland area’s only commercial airport: a luxury jetport and a new full-service Customs building.

“Some level of uncertainty pertaining to the future of ONT … may create a hole where SBD can effectively focus the discussion on general aviation,” said marketing firm Nostrum Inc. in a report to the San Bernardino International Airport Authority last week.

For example, Ontario International last year lost one of its two private-jet fueling companies, the report said.

San Bernardino International has a luxury jetport — the former Million Air — that offers low-cost refueling, as well as posh quarters for pilots to hang out between flights.

Spreading the word about the San Bernardino facility will be a priority task for Long Beach-based Nostrum, which specializes in branding.

The company was hired last week to brand the jetport that currently has no name, and to retool San Bernardino International’s website to highlight the jetport so corporate-jet pilots can easily see what it has to offer.

The only advertising the jetport has been getting since Texas-based Million Air pulled out in 2012 is word of mouth.

San Bernardino International also can capitalize on a Customs building that will open next month, said San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris, president of the authority board.

Customs agents will be able to swiftly process the arrival of 350 international passengers at a time, Morris said.

The airport already employs a customs agent full time and is working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to add another, said Deputy Director of Aviation Mark Gibbs in a phone interview on Monday.

Inland travelers often fly to Mexico and other international destinations, but Ontario International now offers only a few flights a week to a single international destination: Guadalajara.

An analysis of tickets purchased by people living within a 30-minute drive of San Bernardino showed that in 2012, nearly 200,000 passengers from the environs flew to international destinations from LAX; about 50,000, from ONT.

Although Guadalajara was the most popular international destination for those travelers, Mexico City and Cancun also were sought after, said airline-industry analysts Mead & Hunt, which did a passenger-demand analysis last summer.

San Bernardino International also can capitalize on the maintenance and repair companies that currently operate at the airport, Gibbs said.

They have continued to provide job growth even during the recession, said James Ramos, a county supervisor and authority board member.

Commercial domestic air service probably won’t come until sometime in the future, authority board member Sam Racadio said by phone on Friday.

The airport has been trying to gain its footing since Congress shut down the Air Force Base 20 years ago.

The base-reuse authority had pinned its hopes on developer Scot Spencer — a convicted felon who had ongoing financial problems — because of his contacts in the airline industry.

Million Air severed ties with him in 2012 over $800,000 in fees he owed the firm, according to a lawsuit it filed in 2012.

After a critical grand jury report and an FBI investigation, Spencer was arrested last year on conspiracy and perjury charges related to $1 million the airport authority paid him. He is awaiting trial.

The authority spent the next six months untangling its ties to him.

The airport authority board will continue to discuss plans to capitalize on aviation uses for the former base at a hearing on Feb. 26.

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